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Last update:

$Date: 2014/07/21 08:07:19 $

History

07-JUL-1917

discovery of bones in the cave by the teacher Theophil Nigg from Vättis, and his 9 year old son Toni Nigg.

1917-1923

excavations by Dr. Emil Bächler.

1981

exhibition about the Drachenloch inaugurated in the Ortsmuseum Vättis.

Description

The Drachenloch (Dragon's Lair) was excavated in the years 1917 to 1923 by
Dr. Emil Bächler.
The remains of more than 30,000
cave bears (Ursus spelaeus)
gave the cave its name.

Beneath the cave bear bones, two fire places were found, but no other human
remains.
However, a famous finding of Dr. Emil Bächler was
a bear skull with a femor sticking behind the cheek-bone.
This postition is only possible, if the femur is turned while it is moved behind
the cheek-bone.
This makes a human action very likely and started discussions about a bear cult
of early man.

"In a chamber of the Drachenloch in Switzerland, a stone cist had been built to
house stacked bear-skulls: piles of sorted long bones were laid along the walls
of the cave. Another heap of bones contained the skull of a bear through which a
leg bone had been forced, the skull resting upon two other long bones, each bone
was from a different beast."

"Why Neanderthal man began hunting the Cave Bear is not certain. It was a
formidable animal, standing more than eight feet tall when reared in anger, and
must have been a dangerous foe. It also lived in much more inaccessible places
than most of the other fame. Nevertheless, it was hunted - perhaps to fulfill an
early hunting ritual. Discovery of bear skulls stacked in a stone chest in
Drachenloch, Switzerland, supports this idea; the heads may have been trophies."